Life-form spectra of Brazilian cerrado sites

Abstract

Summary The cerrado, the second largest vegetation type in Brazil, presents a wide physiognomic range, from grasslands to tall woodlands, but with most of its physiognomies fitting the definition of tropical savanna. We compiled Raunkiaer’s life-form spectra from cerrado sites and from other vegetation types, comparing them among themselves with ordination analyses. In all cerrado life-form spectra, the main life-form classes were the hemicryptophytes and the phanerophytes, the former prevailing in sites with open physiognomies and the latter prevailing in sites with closed physiognomies. When compared with life-form spectra from other vegetation types, the cerrado sites formed a distinct group, with scores closer to those of the hemicryptophytes and phanerophytes. The cerrado sites distinguished themselves from the savanna sites by their under-representation of therophytes. The ordination plot indicated the likeliness of two gradients in the determination of biological spectra in the world, one from wet to dry, the other from hot to cold, thus stressing the role of precipitation and temperature on plant forms. Even if sometimes criticized in its application on tropical communities, Raunkiaer’s system was useful to characterize the cerrado floras and to separate them from other vegetation types.